A substantial portion of the fishing industry involves fixed gear fishing. Fixed gear fishing involves the use of fishing equipment being left unattended in the water for a period of time and then collected, presumably once fish have been caught. One typical example of fixed gear is a lobster trap, which is often left at the bottom of the sea for anywhere from a day to a week and then reeled in and the traps are emptied.
Fixed gear fishing is regulated. Some regulations are in place to avoid decimation of the marine wildlife targeted by the fixed fishing gear. For instance, some regulations are placed on lobster fishing to avoid decimating the current lobster population. Other regulations are in place to avoid unintended harm to other marine wildlife. For instance, some regulations are placed on lobster fishing to avoid harm to the endangered right whales, which annually suffer casualties after becoming entangled in lobster fishing lines. Enforcement of these regulations requires being able to identify the owner of fixed gear while the fixed gear is unattended.
Current methods of marking fixed gear to identify the owner of fixed gear are visual in nature. One common method of marking gear is painting the buoys that support the fixed gear a different color for each fisherman. This method is effective for small numbers of fisherman, but can be confusing differentiating between large numbers of fisherman, particularly when the water discolors the buoys. Another known method of making fixed gear visually identifiable has been to tie colored threads to the ropes at various intervals. This system can handle larger volumes of fishermen but using multiple threads (e.g., one blue, one green, and one red identifies one fisherman, while two blue and a yellow identify another fisherman). This system again suffers the effect of the threads becoming discolored by the water. The threads may also break off during use of the rope and require regulators to get very close to the rope to make identification.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.